News about reptiles and amphibians. This may be news from herpetologists, organizations, but also from private persons. Everyone is welcome to send me some news about the protection, abusing, mistreatment, discoveries, etc., of these fascinating animals .

donderdag 22 maart 2012

10K acres set aside for threatened frog

The federal government will designate more than 10,000
acres in Arizona and New Mexico as prime habitat for the threatened
Chiricahua leopard frog.
More than a dozen streams and many livestock watering
tanks across Southern and Central Arizona were picked by the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service as critical habitat for the frog, a threatened
species.
The Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, Florida
Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains, Peña Blanca Lake near Nogales,
Sycamore Canyon in the Atascosa Mountains and Ramsey and Brown canyons
in the Huachuca Mountains are among the critical habitat sites.
But other areas near the proposed Rosemont Mine site in
the Santa Ritas that have had leopard frogs were left out because the
frogs aren't known to breed there now - largely because there's less
water there than there was several decades ago.
The decision means one less legal issue for the mine,
since lands designated critical habitat can't be destroyed or seriously
modified by projects that need U.S. permits.
Last year, mine opponents with the Center for Biological
Diversity and Pima County recommended six livestock watering tank sites
on Forest Service and private land in the mine area as prime frog
habitat. The Wildlife Service rejected them in its decision this week
and chose six other tanks farther away, within two or three miles of the
mine site. In recent years, such tanks have become key areas for the
leopard frog.

COURTESY OF DENNIS CALDWELLThis Chiricahua
leopard frog was photographed on the east slope of the Santa Rita
Mountains, within the newly designated leopard frog habitat.

Mary Richardson, a wildlife service supervisory
biologist, said the agency determined the Rosemont sites didn't meet
critical habitat criteria. First, there is no indication that frogs
breed there. Leopard frogs can travel as far as five miles, spending
time in one area and breeding in another.
Frog researchers Philip Rosen, of the University of
Arizona, and Dennis Caldwell, a private researcher, said the
Rosemont-area sites are worth protecting, and that breeding could be
restored there. But they agreed that the areas don't meet the feds'
critical-habitat standards without breeding populations.
Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity
said that overall, the group is pleased by the habitat decision. But it
was disappointed that the Rosemont-area tanks weren't picked.
Robinson said the mine could obliterate frogs on its land
and could destroy their ability to survive nearby due to dust, toxic
chemicals, blasting sounds and truck traffic.
Julia Fonseca, Pima County's environmental planning
manager, wrote the Wildlife Service in 2011 that leopard frogs were
reported as "abundant" in the Rosemont area in the 1970s by private
biologists. While the surveyors didn't note whether they were Chiricahua
or lowland leopard frogs, the Arizona Game and Fish Department
concluded in the 1990s they were Chiricahua frogs.

Bijschrift toevoegen

Surveys by Rosemont Copper consulting firm Westland
Resources found those frogs in the six Rosemont-area water tank sites in
a 2008 survey, but they weren't breeding.
Still, the frogs' presence throughout the Santa Ritas
suggests the area contains a regional group of connected populations
whose habitat needs protection, said Fonseca and Robinson.
Rosemont Copper official Kathy Arnold said based on the
company's surveys for frogs and other species, the Wildlife Service
findings met Rosemont's expectations.
"Rosemont works with Arizona Game and Fish, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, the University of Arizona and the U.S. Forest
Service, as do other ranches and property owners in the area," Arnold,
Rosemont's vice president for environmental and regulatory affairs,
added in a written statement.
"Contributions besides the survey work include providing
water to habitat during dry periods, assisting with stormwater controls
to control sediments entering ponds, and managing and providing access
to habitat," she said.Contact reporter Tony Davis at tdavis@azstarnet.com or 806-7746.